Due to the almost complete integration of processing and data storage mechanisms into virtually every aspect of modern life, there are now orders of magnitude more information available to the average human being than at any other time in human history. This abundance of data has led many to describe the current era as the “information age.”
One issue associated with the massive amounts of information and data available today is how to organize the data in such a way that desired information and/or data can be relatively easily identified and accessed in a systematic and reliable way. One way data is currently arranged for relative ease of access is as hierarchical data. Hierarchical data is arranged in parent/child data levels, also known as a “one to many” data arrangement. This type of data arrangement has proven extremely useful and particularly intuitive for consumer-based systems such as, but not limited to, data categorization systems, such as menu-based systems; financial transaction categorization systems; geo-location and positional systems; audio file organizational systems, such as, but not limited to, playlists; video file organization systems, such as, but not limited to, video library and menu systems; and numerous other systems or situations where large amounts of data needs to be accessed in an efficient and intuitive way.
While hierarchical data arrangements have proven very effective, one long-standing problem associated with hierarchical data arrangements is the fact that, currently, hierarchical data is typically arranged in lists of parent data levels and one or more child data levels displayed in an outline-like, linear, and static display structure.
For relatively small amounts of data, and relatively few parent and child data levels, the system is sufficient. However, when larger numbers of data levels are present, or when a display screen is of limited size, current display implementations of hierarchical data often result in considerable user input, often in the form of the user having to scroll through multiple user interface display screens, to view all, or a sufficient number of, the data levels.
For instance, FIG. 1 shows a typically prior art hierarchical data arrangement of financial transaction category types including parent data levels, i.e., parent categories “Health & Fitness” and “Home.” As seen in FIG. 1, the parent category “Health & Fitness” includes the child data levels, i.e., categories, “Dentist”, “Doctor”, “Eyecare”, “Gym”, “Health Insurance”, “Pharmacy”, and “Sports”. It is worth noting that the user interface display screen 101 of FIG. 1 only displays a single complete set of related categories with the same parent category, i.e., “Health & Fitness.” Consequently, display screen 101 of FIG. 1 only displays a very small portion of the hierarchical data and numerous user interface display screens would have to be accessed in order to see all of the hierarchical data, i.e., all the potential financial transaction categories.
As a result, when current hierarchical data arrangements are used to display even moderately long/deep lists of parent and/or child data levels, the user is often forced to either remember both the parent data level name and the child data level name, or to scroll through a long list of data level names to try and identify the parent data level, and/or the child data level name, desired.
Even in the age of desktop computing systems, and large display screens, the situation described above was considered problematic. However, with the advent of mobile computing, current hierarchical data arrangements are, at best, a nuisance to users who must scroll through multiple user interface screens, and are often impractical and unusable with mobile computing systems, such as smart phones, with their very limited display screen space. Consequently, current hierarchical data arrangements often limit a modern user's ability to efficiently and intuitively access desired data.